If you run an online business, or are at least trying to run an online business, you must have felt the urge to buy a smartphone such as the new Nexus S by now. Being able to check your emails, calculate your tax return, call your clients, shop for merchandise and perform thousands of other tasks all from the palm of your hand is, indeed, handy.
There are advantages to be had from working with a smartphone. Apple’s iPhone, Google’s Android and RIM’s Blackberry are all fantastic business tools, but for small online businesses, especially those with just one or maybe two employees, they can be a recipe for disaster.
Security Risk
With the opportunity to cram a ton of information, including all your passwords for email accounts and potentially information about your company’s business merchant account etc, onto your smartphone, losing it is a disaster. Imagine leaving your briefcase with the keys to your office in it, along with your every conversation by email and text message, links to all your favourite websites and pictures of your kids too.
To be safe, you need to have a separate work and personal phone. Plus you should purge your phone at least every week to keep it clear of too many emails, and you should never save your passwords, no matter how annoying it is to type them in every time. Having a password to access your phone is a good idea too.
Signal + Battery Power
All the power of your super smart phone can be brought crashing down by a simple tunnel. You don’t want to be on a crucial call only to lose signal or power. This not only looks unprofessional to clients, it can even cause you to lose business and sales if your business requires a response from you via your phone.
Restricting the use of your smartphone as a main point of contact to periods when it is just unavoidable will save you from any of this. People will trust you more if you call them from a landline anyway and you will be in a better position to use a computer while on the phone too.
Concentrate Less
Having all your business calls and emails coming through your palm sized unit can force you to have your nose in your phone all the time. This is not only uncomfortable; it is annoying for your friends and family and does not paint a good impression for clients.
The answer is no! Having a proper station from which to run your online business will always be much more efficient and comfortable than using just a smartphone. Smartphones are great devices and can really help your business, but restricting yourself to one portal is madness.
As a leading payment service provider, we at Lancore know a thing or two about security and the smartphone route of business simply isn’t secure as your primary means of running your companies comings and goings.
If you are in business these days it is almost essential to have a smartphone. With all the mobility of a…er…mobile, and all the handy application usefulness of a computer, they go with business like bread and butter. They are particularly valuable for small businesses and can act as an entire office for some one man companies. If they could find somewhere to keep the mugs in a smartphone they would no doubt do coffee too.
